NEW YORK -- Creative teams don't get much more heterogeneous than the one behind Peter and the Starcatcher. But in most respects, the motley crew bands together surprisingly well.Commissioned by Disney Theatrical Prods., the show was adapted by Jersey Boys co-writer Rick Elice from Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson's best-selling 2004 children's adventure book, which traces the backstory of Peter Pan. Roger Rees and Alex Timbers share directing duties, bringing classical theater smarts and downtown hipster attitude, respectively. Helping to inject vigorous physicality into the staging is movement director Steven Hoggett, known for his ruggedly distinctive choreography on Black Watch and American Idiot.

While Disney is still mulling future plans, this play with music gets its first full-fledged outing at Off-Broadway's New York Theater Workshop, following a 2009 "Page to Stage" test-drive at La Jolla Playhouse.

But it's in the simple flourishes – conjuring a wild storm at sea with little more than a length of rope, or a giant crocodile with a pair of red headlights and strings of white flags for teeth – that the show taps into a magical tradition of children's theater. In an era of mainstream family entertainment in which audience imagination is too rarely a requirement, it's a breath of salty sea air.